Why Brand Matters To Your Business

September 6, 2017 By Ashley Orndorff, aka Marketing Geek

Do your customers know you? More importantly, can your customers tell you apart from your competitors? If they can’t, your brand needs some work. This is why brand matters to your business:

What is a Brand?

Your brand is what sets you apart from your competitors and keeps your business from slipping into anonymity. It includes your logo, colors, slogan, tone, promise, and more – your brand encompasses many aspects of your business – including how you do it.

Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and Brand Promise

A brand usually starts with your business’s unique value proposition (UVP). What makes you different? What promise do you make to your customers?

Start there and build out. The end result will become your brand, or corporate, identity and includes the logo, slogan, brand voice, etc. Once you have your brand identity in place, you need to build awareness for it.

Brand Reputation

Your customers will play a huge part in this because their perception of your brand makes a difference. As you build awareness around your brand, your customers will help build your brand reputation – good or bad. Negative reviews can have a resounding impact on your reputation and will hinder your marketing efforts.

Whatever your brand promise is, make sure you deliver it efficiently and consistently. Put customer service at the top of your list – your online reputation relies on it. With consistency and good service on your side, you’ll start off right when building brand awareness and recognition.

Brand Awareness and Recognition

Strong brand awareness and recognition are when your customers, and even potential customers, see your logo or your slogan and know who you are. Take big brands like Nike, Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, or McDonald’s, for example. These brands have such a strong presence that people just have to see the logo or hear the slogan to know what it is. A good way to achieve brand awareness is by outbound marketing.

This sort of consistent brand identity and strong reputation should be your goal when building your business’s brand. You may not reach global recognition, but a strong brand will only help your business continue to grow.

How a Strong Brand Benefits Your Business

A strong brand with a clear mission, a good reputation, and some recognition does a lot to help your business. These are some of the benefits a strong brand provides:

Stay Focused

If you’ve done your research and built your brand right, then you have a clear mission and set goals to achieve. With these in place, it’s easier for your business to stay focused on what matters for your brand, and therefore, your customers.

With new technology released daily and seemingly endless marketing possibilities, it’s far too easy for your team to get distracted. You can find your business pulled in several different, and often irrelevant, directions before you know it. Diversification is good, as long as it supports your brand. If it’s irrelevant for your brand, it’s likely irrelevant for your customer base too.

Focusing on the right areas reduces waste, increases efficiency, and helps your business grow. Having a strong brand backed by a clear mission keeps your team focused on the right areas – your customers and your goals.

Stand Out

A strong brand helps your business stand out from the competition. This is one of the logo design tips that can apply to how you approach your brand overall.

Think of Google. Their brand is so strong and recognizable that we often say we’re going to “Google” something instead of “search the internet” for something.

If you’re the one standing out, you’re likely to get more customers. Plus, when potential customers are unhappy with your competitors, they’ll be more likely to come to you.

Customer Loyalty

Loyal customers are your most valuable customers. They will spend more with you over time, and their average order value (AOV) is often higher than new customers. They are also more likely to refer new customers to you.

In fact, loyal customers will spend 67% more than new customers on average. Add that it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one and it’s clear – customer loyalty matters.

Referrals

Loyal customers are also great for referrals. 55% of U.S. consumers tend to express loyalty to brands by recommending them to family and friends.

With a strong brand backing you up, a great experience goes a long way, especially for new customers. Even if it’s their first time doing business with you, a new customer will share their great experience with their friends and family. This is especially so if they’re active on social media.

58% of consumers share positive experiences with brands on social media. You’ve earned their trust, and as you continue to build the relationship, they’ll continue to refer new customers to you.

Pricing Flexibility

Customers care about quality, and they’re willing to pay for it. If you’ve earned a customer’s trust and they know they can count on you, then they’ll buy your product or service over another. Not only that, but they’ll do so even if it costs more! Once you’ve gained a customer’s loyalty, 65% of US internet users demonstrate that loyalty by buying more of your products or services.

Because consumers are willing to pay more for quality, a strong brand with an established positive reputation can be more flexible with pricing. If you have the reputation and brand to back it up, you can charge a premium price for your quality products and services.

As a note of warning, just because consumers are willing to pay more does not mean you can jack up your prices. Don’t take advantage of that trust. If you are not transparent and you lose your customers’ trust, you will not get it back.

Attract Top Talent

Businesses with strong brands and good reputations attract top talent. A strong brand is a notable brand, which means top talent will want to work for you and seek you out.

It’s also usually an indication of stability. Financial stability is attractive to people who are at the top of their field. If you have talented people on your team, your business will only benefit from their skills and experience.

If you want more information on brand awareness, these books on marketing are a great place to begin. If you need help designing or developing your brand, contact MIND today!